Rotating Tires

Rotating tires is one of those jobs you can do yourself in your own garage or driveway to save a little money on car repair bills.

Rotating is nothing more than changing the position of the tire on the car from one axle to another, or from one side to another. Moving the tires to different locations compensates for the tendency of tires to wear more if they are left where they are. For instance, the front tires on front wheel drive cars will normally wear faster than the rear because they are used for steering and moving the car forward.

Rotating tires takes only a few tools to accomplish and maybe an hour of your time.

Tools needed

• 1 Jack
• 4 Jack Stands
• 1 lug wrench
• 1 torque wrench with a socket to fit the lug nuts
• blocks for blocking the tires when jacking up the car.

In addition, you'll want to consult your car owner's manual or repair manual to find the rotation pattern and the specified lug nut torque for your car.

Tire rotation procedure

1. If your vehicle has wheel covers, remove them. Loosen, but don't remove the lug nuts for all 4 tires. Loosen them just enough so you can take them off by hand when you have the car supported by the jack stands.
2. With the car on level ground, block the tires that are on the opposite end from where you plan to start. For instance, if you will be jacking up the front of the car to place jack stands, you would block the rear tires.
3. Jack up the car at the wheel you decided to be your starting point. Once the tire is off the ground, place a jack stand to support the car and remove the jack.
4. Move on to the other wheel on that same axle (in our example, that would be the left front wheel) and repeat the jacking procedure. Follow the same procedure for the remaining 2 wheels. When you are done, all 4 tires should be off the ground, and the car should be supported by the 4 jack stands. For safety reasons, the jack should not be used to support the car while you are working on it.
5. Choose your starting point and remove the lug nuts from that wheel. Remove the wheel and take it to its new location. Remove the lug nuts and wheel that are already at that location and install the wheel you are moving there. Hand tighten the lug nuts. Repeat this procedure until all the wheels have been rotated to their new locations.
6. Jack up the car at each wheel, remove the jack stand, and lower the tire back to the ground.
7. Once all 4 tires are back on the ground, torque the lug nuts to the torque setting specified in the car owner's manual or repair manual. If your car has wheel covers, re-install them.
8. Check and adjust the air pressure in your tires as necessary. Most cars have different tire air pressure settings from front to rear, so you'll want to make this adjustment as soon as possible.